Order of names

Hi all,

My wife has recently received her invitation to attend a citizenship ceremony. Now here was me thinking it was all coming to an end, but it appears that there could be an added complication.

My wife is Vietnamese, and on her passport her name order is "Surname" - "Middle Name" - "First Name". This is generally how they do things over there. Now because of this, when completing the naturalization application we were advised that we had to put her name EXACTLY as it is on her passport. As a result, her naturalization certificate has her name as "Middle Name" - "First Name" - "Surname".

I've been told we can't say this is a mistake, as it was what we gave in the application as per instructions given, but when it comes to applying for a British Passport, this is obviously going to be wrong. I'm guessing she can't go for a name change either, as technically she isn't changing her name.

Has anyone else had to deal with this issue before? And if so, what did you do to rectify it?

My wife is in exactly the same situation:

"Middle Name" - "First Name" - "Surname"

In all her papers including permanent residence, driving license, bank account, HMRC documens... except her passport.

She is not applying for BC at the moment, but I am really concerned about it when it happens. Because the last thing we want is a certificate of citizenship not matching her passport. It can be an issue with HMPO and her country doesn't allow name change.

Me thinking to get her to apply for citizenship using her passport as ID and writing her name exactly as it appears there.

I am following your post. If I find anything, I will let you know because I am digging for this issue at the moment.

FYI:

I just called the HMPO now.

They told me it's an issue if the given names are not in the same order as in the foreign passport.

However, they explained it's possible to get away with a covering letter explaining that the names in the foreign passport cannot be changed as the foreign country doesn't allow that.

That's what they told me verbally.